Quotes from fyreflyte re: itemization in ROK.. whats going on?

This first quote comes from the FoH message boards:

Yeah, I think you need to shut the fuck up. It was totally intentional, heres some of her posts.

From fyreflyte, Assoc. Game Designer

Quote:
Not sure why people always blame the lack of brawler gear on caster leather. The reason you're seeing so much caster leather this expansion is because I felt it would be pointless to create every single piece of priest armor in triplicate (leather, chain, plate) when all 3 types could wear leather, and generally had little use for the extra mitigation of the higher armor types. Thus, the majority of the priest gear I created was leather so that all priests could make use of it. The lack of brawler gear stems from the fact that they use a combination of stats and an armor type that no other classes use. I can create 3 pieces of leather aimed at druids, shamans, and clerics, and have 3 viable items for each (ie. any one of those classes could use any of the 3 armors). But when I create a brawler armor, only brawlers will ever be wearing it. There are 24 classes to itemize, a number of which have special stat and effect requirements. I try to be as accommodating as I can, but the fact is that the classes who share useful stats (like priests or cloth casters) are always going to receive a much larger selection than classes with specific needs. This is an unfortunate result of the way these classes were initially designed.
That being said, I dedicated 2 full sets of armor to brawlers, which is more than other classes (such as dirges, conjurors, shadowknights, etc.) had designed specifically for them. Those classes may have a wider selection of armor, but most of it was not created specifically for them.
Quote:
I did not balance itemization on a per-quest basis. I created an outline of all of the items I wanted to make at the outset and made sure that no holes were left. The items were then distributed out to various bosses and quests. So yes, in some cases one class or another will receive a "better" reward on a specific quest, but that has no bearing on the overarching game balance. There are plenty of quests/bosses in the game (prior to this expansion) that don't even drop loot usable by some classes - I would think you'd find this even more imbalanced...
Quote:
Categorically untrue. Both SKs and Paladins received specific itemization this expansion. Probably more than most cloth casters did. That it is spread out is due to you being 2 classes among 24. For all the reasons I explained above, you'll more easily find general cloth gear due to its use between all the cloth classes (and even amongst some priests). One reason you are finding more upgrades for your caster this expansion is (I'm guessing) because of the increased use of spell damage and spell haste. Keep in mind that melee already had a number of analogous bonuses (haste, dps, double attack) that previously had no casting equivalent.

Looks like she will go back and add some to vendors, since despite what she says, people are whiny bitches.

Quote:
Given the lack of availability of certain armor types, and the ease of adding new pieces via faction vendors (quests are much much trickier to go back and itemize), I'm going to be filling some holes in a coming update. I want to stress that this is not a case of "the squeaky wheel gets the oil"; I'm not adding this armor simply to quiet down the (rather loud) complainers, but because I see a need for it, especially given the ramped up difficulty of soloing in RoK.

Just wondering if this is truely correct? Its a quote from someone claiming - i assume its a false claim from the pure disregard of logic the statement below contains - to be an associate EQ2 Developer AND who have done itemization for RoK

Quote FyreFlyte:

The reason you're seeing so much caster leather this expansion is because I felt it would be pointless to create every single piece of priest armor in triplicate (leather, chain, plate) when all 3 types could wear leather, and generally had little use for the extra mitigation of the higher armor types. Thus, the majority of the priest gear I created was leather so that all priests could make use of it.

End Quote.

Would like some sort of response to this as it would explain why ive seen 1, ill repeat that number just in case you need it, ONE, piece of plate loot over the course of my RoK questing, And yes it was NOT healer geared, where as ive seen a plethora of Leather with healing stats.. Even the quests offering Legendary gear got NO plate gear what so ever..

After that post, fyreflyte posted a responce to the OP basically confirming the quote (at least not denying it). That has turned into the following discussion.

Re: Quotes from fyreflyte re: itemization in ROK.. whats going on?

what is this about anyways. thats pretty smart using leather for all priests. gtfo

It sucks ass as a shaman being forced to wear leather because that's all there is. I won't do it, I'm not a GD warden.

If the difference in mitigation isn't important, then redesign the game and make gear that's only equippable by priest classes. But don't force chain classes to wear leather, that sucks ass.

EDIT: Man, this put me in a bad mood. If I don't need the extra mitigation of chain anymore, please give shaman and clerics all that nice fury DPS so we no longer have to pretend like there is any difference between priest classes.

The fucking point here is leather. I'm not a leather class as a shaman, and don't want to wear that crap unless I get the other benefits of leather wearers.

Re: Quotes from fyreflyte re: itemization in ROK.. whats going on?

Edit again: please don't hold my class responsible for the fact there are 24 classes in this game and that's a lot of work individualizing armor for each class. We know that. If it's too much work to design what each class needs, then combine some classes - there never should have been 24 in this game to begin with. But DON'T start making my class lose it's unique class benefits because it is less work to design for the lowest common denominator, this is bullshit to expect chain and plate classes to wear leather.

Re: Quotes from fyreflyte re: itemization in ROK.. whats going on?

Moved to items and equipment.

I think shaman and clerics need to be up in arms about this. If all I'm going to find in the new expansion for my shaman is leather armor, please let me know now so I can abandon my defiler and start over as a fury. No way am I going to play a chain class for the next year that only has leather drops available.

Re: Quotes from fyreflyte re: itemization in ROK.. whats going on?

The only thing that puzzles me is wouldn't it be really easy to practically autogenerate a chain or plate version by just jacking up mitigation and putting the plate/chain reward graphic on it? Stats would still not necessarily be tailor made to each class and each AA style but you can compensate for that more.